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Ankara welcomes EU farm deal

A MAJOR building block in the European Commission’s grand plan to establish a free trade area between the EU and the countries of the Mediterranean basin by 2010 has fallen quietly into place, with the entry into force of a new farm trade agreement between the Union and Turkey.

Both sides regard the deal as a major achievement. Lower import duties should enable EU farmers to export an additional 100-million-ecu worth of cereals, meat and livestock to Turkey every year, while the Union has more than doubled its import quotas for Turkish tomato paste and fresh fruit and vegetables.

In addition, EU import duties on a range of Turkish primary farm products will be abolished altogether.

Ankara’s sole regret is that the EU could not be persuaded to introduce similar concessions for processed goods, but it hopes that progress will be made in this area during future negotiations.

“This new agricultural deal will bring important trade gains to Turkey,” said a Turkish trade official. “It also marks the first occasion on which one of the EU’s Mediterranean trade partners has made truly significant concessions to the Union for farm products. Comparable deals between the EU and other countries in the region have been relatively one-sided, with the Union making all the concessions.”

Turkey has always been better placed to make a significant breakthrough in this particularly sensitive area than its Mediterranean neighbours.

The country formed a full customs union with the EU in all areas except agriculture in 1995, and this provided a useful framework for the new agreement. In addition, Turkey is the Mediterranean region’s second largest supplier of farm products to the EU market after Israel, with agricultural exports worth approximately 1.6 billion ecu per year. The country is one of just two in the region enjoying a comfortable farm trade surplus with the Union.

Both sides intend to consolidate the gains achieved so far. In the second half of 1998, the Commission is planning a further round of negotiations aimed at bringing about long-term convergence between the Turkish and European agricultural sectors.

If successful, they will serve as a model for future attempts to align Mediterranean agriculture with the Union’s farm policies.

However, the Commission admits that it will be some time before any other Mediterranean country matches Turkey’s progress. Farm trade issues have seriously delayed the process of establishing closer ties with the EU’s southern and eastern flank, and have threatened to derail it altogether on more than one occasion.

“Reaching agreement in this area is exceptionally difficult,” confirmed one Commission official. “The problem is that these countries’ agricultural products are substantially the same as those of the southern EU member states, and the trade in farm products is the one area where their less developed neighbours present a serious competitive threat.”

Apart from Turkey, the EU has signed farm trade deals – in the framework of wider Association Agreements – with Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and Jordan.

In order to protect EU producers in Spain, Italy and Greece, these grant only limited access to European markets. Thus, imports of fresh tomatoes from Morocco are limited to 150,000 tonnes per year, while imports of fresh fruit and vegetables are carefully timed to avoid clashing with the main EU harvest in spring.

Farm trade negotiations with Syria, the Lebanon and Egypt are currently under way. The Commission is reasonably optimistic that a deal will soon be reached with the first two, but says talks with Cairo have stalled over agricultural issues.

“The problem is partly due to southern EU countries’ unwillingness to make real concessions for key products like rice and cut flowers, but Egypt is also making unrealistic demands,” said one official.

Ironically, the forging of closer links with the Mediterranean basin was initiated under pressure from southern EU member states who felt that a counterweight was needed to the drive towards eastern enlargement, which they perceived to be exclusively in the interest of northern Union countries.

But this has not guaranteed their cooperation over agricultural trade issues. Their protests at increased competition from their southern neighbours prompted the Commission to produce a report in 1997 that concluded any negative impact on EU markets was negligible.

This report was coolly received by the southern governments, and Athens, Rome and Madrid continue to watch farm imports from their neighbours with a worried eye.